White rice is particularly harmful – a cup of it has 200 calories, mostly “empty” or pure starch without a lot of other nutrients.

But scientists have proved that one simple trick, can halve the calorific value and even add other nutrients to the rice.

“We cooked rice as usual, only in the boiling water, before we put the rice, we add the coconut oil, about 3 percent of the weight of the rice. After it was over, we leave it in the fridge for about 12 hours, “explained Dr. Sudhair James.

What is really happening?

Boiling starch in the rice make it extremely easy digestible, and the organism easily converts it into sugar and glycogen and stores it as fat. Frying or other ways of preparing rice but do not change the starch and remains difficult to digest.

“The addition of lipids (in this case coconut oil or other fat that serve a purpose) drastically reduces the proportion of easily digestible starch” explains Dr. Pusparajah Thavarajah, adding that oil reacts with starch and changes its structure. “Cooling helps reinforce the starch in its ‘heavier’ form, and rice remains less calorific and after being re-heated,” adds Prof. Thavarajah.